Question: Perhaps additional settings for "AI Tank Heavy"?

[SaS TrooP]

I recently managed to get some time inbetween preparing some scenarios for you (hope you gonna like them) and went in for some generated campaigns in late Cold War SPMBT.

AI is constantly aquiring ****loads of standard footmobile, infantry rifle companies. It is 1985 and Poland deploys 2 infantry battalions on 160x160 map. Of course this happens always - simply that's how AI is and I cannot do much about it as I cannot controy AI buy options in campaign mode (and in generated battle I can buy for them, but then I know what is going to come after me).

There is this option in the preferences, "AI Tank Heavy". Perhaps - since new patch is probably coming in like 2-3 months as ussual - you could think of adding extra option, that will simply disable standard infantry companies for AI? This would force them to buy motorized and mechanized troops, as it should be in modern times?

I wonder how complicated in the coding would that be.

[cbreedon]

I agree. I usually pay games with a company of infantry, several tanks, loads of artillery and some sort of scouting group. When I play against the Russians, they usually pick a bunch of infantry and some ATGM's. To be honest I wipe the flow with them and there is no challenge. I'd like to see them pick some tanks and make a go of it.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

I find this VERY unusual. What are your "buy" levels for the AI set at? I routinely will see tank heavy as the setting implies, a good amount of artillery, SPAA, Mech Int. and air whether AH or other, ATGW teams providing cover fire initially and yes foot infantry normally bringing up the rear.

How long are your Campaigns? Anything less than say 9 or 11 battles over a course of a year or more is a waste of time playing the AI. We (w/AI) generally always start small and adjust as the campaign season evolves.

Bottom-line I'm personally not seeing this.

Regards,
Pat

[Suhiir]

What the AI buys is heavily influenced by the amount of points it has.

It will almost always buy one foot mobile infantry company, but after that what can it afford? Tanks are expensive.

[Mobhack]

This is it - tanks in the later years are hugely expensive, when APCs get festooned with missiles and thermal sights they cost almost as much as the MBT, and AAA assets (and attack helos etc) also get hugely expensive as well. Cheap bazookas get replaced by ATGM teams with expensive missiles and expensive thermal sights. As in real life, military stuff has skyrocketed in cost over the post war period.

AI tank heavy means that it will try to buy tank coys if it has the points available where it would have bought a platoon, and occasionally it will double buy the tank formation if it has points remaining. But those points will soon run out as the buy goes on and AA assets etc are also bought. When it is lacking in points, it fills out with the cheap stuff.

Therefore the AI will need more points, as time goes by in order to show up with a lot of tanks. 50 point Shermans in 46 become 500+ point MBT by the 2000s. 15 point half-tracks become 350 point IFV.

Of course - if you really want the AI to buy 30 or so MBT and nowt else, you could always do a little editing of the OOB in Mobhack to get one you like to play against. Move the infantry companies somewhere else, and replace with MBT formations, etc.

[scorpio_rocks]

I tend to get the opposite - I have a small(ish) light force set to fight insurgents, rebels, etc and the AI buys tanks and regular mechanised troops. It would be nice to have a even lower setting to force the AI to use its lighter troops, rebel forces, insurgents, paras etc.


By way of example choose to fight in the S. African Bush war / Angolan Civil war and I always get heavy tanks and Regular mechanised infantry never lighter rebels, etc.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by scorpio_rocks

I tend to get the opposite - I have a small(ish) light force set to fight insurgents, rebels, etc and the AI buys tanks and regular mechanised troops. It would be nice to have a even lower setting to force the AI to use its lighter troops, rebel forces, insurgents, paras etc.


By way of example choose to fight in the S. African Bush war / Angolan Civil war and I always get heavy tanks and Regular mechanised infantry never lighter rebels, etc.

Same answer as above

Use the OOB swap utility. Back up the old enemy OOB in a sub directory, then use mobhack to edit a copy where you swap the tank platoons and coys elsewhere in the OOB (up at the top say) and then replace the moved items with the appropriate grunt formations. Then when It would have bought tanks, it buys the freedom fighters or whatever. Make a copy of that in another sub directory and then use the OOB swap utility to move the one you currently want to play with in and out of the game's oob folder.

[SaS TrooP]

I do not think you all get the point :v
Campaigns I now played had points set to XXX, while my core force usually occiliated around ~10k points. Roughly 2 tank coys, 2 mech coys and supporting units, this adds to it, depends on the nation.

Yes. AI deploys tanks. And mechanized infantry. And motorized infantry. Yet, if you happen to deal with all that, there is always a swarm of footmobile infantry coming in en masse - like if AI still decides to buy these units regardless of the fact its 1985, map is 160x160 and generally motorized/mechanized units dominate the battlefield.

What I suggest is adding an option, that if clicked ON, would make standard infantry companies (not "elites", such as paratroopers etc.) invisible for the AI - something like with types of artillery controls that disables the access for on map units. This would force the AI to resign from standard footmobiles completely and spend points on greater ammounts of modern units.

[Mobhack]

And as explained - it buys cheap things with remaining points when it has only loose change to spend. The cheap stuff is riflemen, if an MBT is 500 points and it has 1000 or so left, then it wont buy MBTs often. It will buy the rifle platoon, go round the loop again saying "not enough points" to the tank choice, arty choice, AA choice etc. and revisit the cheap rifle platoon or inf-AT section and buy that till the loose change runs out.

[Aeraaa]

The best solution IMO is to buy the AI force yourself, rather than let the AI do it.